J&K police exhume body of man killed in fake encounter

Police on Thurday exhumed the body of Abdul Rahman Padder, a carpenter allegedly killed by the personnel of special operation group (SOG) of J&K police in a fake encounter at Sumbal in north Kashmir, in presence of a two-member team of forensic experts.

The team headed by Dr Sanjeev from Chandigarh Forensic laboratory collected samples from Padder’s body. They also collected the blooded samples of Padder’s parents, who along with the slain civilians wife and other relatives, were present when the body was exhumed.

Deputy inspector General (DIG) of Police Farooq Ahmad, who is heading the team investigating the killing of Paddar and SP Abdul Razak and several other police and civilian officials were also present on the occasion.

DIG said that the body was later sent to the native village of Paddar Larnoo Kokernag after the forensic experts collected the samples.

The body was exhumed under tight security. The entire graveyard, where the bod had been buried was sealed and no civilian other than relatives of Padder was allowed to come near the grave. A large number of residents of the village and surrounding localities gathered on the occasion, who were witnessing the exhumation from a distance outside the graveyard.

As the body was brought out of the grave, Paddar’s relatives, wailed and wept. Emotions ran high as the residents witnessed the tragic scene. They shouted slogans against police and attempted to break the cordon and barge into the graveyard. Police retaliated with cane charge and tear-smoke shelling. The residents pelted stones and bricks on police and the battle lasted for around half an hour.

Paddar was picked up by the personnel of Ganderbal SOG on December 8 from Batamaloo in Srinagar and was allegedly killed in fake encounter at Waskoora in Ganderbal. He was buried in a graveyard at Sumbal as Abu hafiz, a senior commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba.